


The Chains That Bind Us

by saintmichael



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, JRPG AU, Other, angel slavery, tales of berseria au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:13:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29666412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintmichael/pseuds/saintmichael
Summary: Adam has been training for years to become an exorcist. To pass the test, he has to bind a malakh to his service. He is expected to do well.AU heavily inspired/borrowing concepts from Tales of Berseria with other JRPGs sprinkled in.
Relationships: Michael/Adam Milligan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	1. A Boy And His Malakh

Adam tugged on his robes nervously as he waited in line with the rest of the initiate hopefuls. Today was the Day of Bonding, the day of reckoning that he and the other youths in his class had been training for for the last five years. It would make or break them, allow them to be fully initiated into the Order or push them out into administrative ranks at best, and they were all dreading failure.

The excited whispers of some groups of friends clumped together echoed through the vast and hallowed halls of the Temple. Adam had no one to whisper to, and instead recited the prayers and spells necessary for bonding to a malakh inside his head. His teachers had been praising his abilities for years, and everyone was expecting him to tether a powerful malakh. He was desperate to not fail.

He inched his way to the door as the student ahead of him was let into the ritual chamber. His robes were itchy and starting to feel tight around his neck. It’s just nerves, he told himself firmly. Snap out of it.

Could those girls stop  _ giggling?  _ Did they think they were at a party? If they didn’t take the bonding seriously, the ritual could go seriously wrong. They’d all been warned; an untethered malak could wreak havoc if summoned inexpertly.

Sweat was running down his brow by the time the proctor at the door  _ finally  _ nodded at him to enter the ritual chamber. Adam walked as gracefully as he could to the center of the chamber before kneeling at the feet of the Grand Cleric and the two High Priests beside him.

“Welcome, child,” said the Grand Cleric. “Strength and glory.”

“Strength and glory, your holiness,” Adam mumbled softly.

“You may rise,” the head of the Order said kindly, and Adam got back up on his feet. The Grand Cleric wore stark white robes that hung from his arms to give him the appearance of girth, but in reality he was a tall, thin man. The robes were covered in ornate gold decorations in the preferred style of the Order; the High Priests on either side of him were wearing similar, if not  _ quite  _ as ornamented robes. 

One of the priests was the High Priest of this Temple and taught several classes. She stared as sternly as ever at Adam. 

“What is your name, child?”

“Adam Milligan, your holiness,” Adam answered. 

The Grand Cleric looked to the local High Priest. “Excellent grades, excellent potential. We estimate an A-3 bonding capability.”

“Oh?” The Grand Cleric looked thoughtful. “A powerful exorcist, then. Or perhaps even a cleric.”

“ _ If  _ he is able to utilise that potential,” the other priest said sharply.

“Indeed. Which is what the Day of Bonding is for.” The Grand Cleric settled into what looked like a familiar routine. “Child, today you will prove exactly where you deserve to stand in our sacred and noble Order. To join in our fight against the darkness, every priest, exorcist and cleric must tether a Malakh to their side. Only with the use of these divine tools can we push back and defeat the scourge of demonkind that threatens humanity. The strength of Malakh you are able to bind will determine your position in our ranks. Do you understand?”

“Yes, your holiness.”

“Are you familiar with the summoning and binding spells? No assistance can be given to you during the ritual. This is a test of your ability as an individual.”

“Yes, your holiness.”

“Very well. You have five minutes to perform your binding. You may start whenever you wish.”

They stepped away from the edge of the dip in the floor, a semicircular valley in the center of the ritual chamber carved out for its namesake purpose. Adam now stood in the middle of it, and tried to remain calm as he began his prayers.

First it was necessary to pray to the malakhim, to draw their attention. Adam sent his prayers up as strongly as possible, but couldn’t feel any descending. Instead he began ascending, his mind drifting into a higher realm as he looked for a malakh to tether. They’d been told about the  _ shift  _ that stronger clerics could manifest, but it was still a shock to Adam, to somehow be floating in an entirely different place while he could still feel his feet upon the ground.

His prayers grew desperate, though, needy; there were  _ no malakhim here _ . “Please,” he choked. Were they hiding? No, not possible. They did not have the consciousness for that. Adam was just far more incompetent than his teachers had envisaged.

The adjudicators in front of him, back in reality, looked disappointed. “Your time is nearly up, boy,” the Grand Cleric said, sounding much less pleasant than before.

In the floaty, dreamy plane, Adam reached out in blind hope. There had to be  _ someone  _ here -  _ someone  _ who could hear his prayers -

He felt a hand, hot and cold at the same time, long fingers that curiously curled around his upon contact. He inhaled sharply with excitement and pulled on it, pulling a malakh  _ out  _ of the fog, a body and head appearing out of nowhere. It blinked sleepily at him, and he recited the next stage of prayers, an invite to the bonding.

“Your name, please, malakh,” he whispered to it. 

The malakh seemed more confused than anything. “Michael,” it responded, its voice a strange hoarse whisper, neither high nor low, feeling like it was penetrating Adam’s brain directly.

It probably was, he reasoned.

“Come, Michael,” he ordered. The malakh obediently followed him down to Earth, and Adam cast the spell that would allow the malakh to manifest before him. With relief, the malakh appeared physically, tall, gaunt and pale with a spear in its hands that it looked like it was leaning on rather than carrying.

_ Okay, you summoned a super weak malakh. But you summoned it, so you’re not a  _ complete  _ failure.  _

“I bind you,” he declared, the true name of the malakh at the forefront of his mind as he uttered the spell that would tether Michael to Adam’s own soul. The malakh watched him tiredly, cocking his head as the spell continued.

Adam’s heart sank as nothing seemed to happen - had he messed  _ this  _ up, too? - but with a sudden click the spell accelerated and he felt the bond quickly develop between him and the malakh.

A collar appeared around the malakh’s neck at the conclusion of the spell, and he felt it curiously. Adam stood there, relieved he had managed some kind of bonding.

The priests were waiting expectantly for something. Fuck, a name. He was supposed to name his malakh.

Uh. Spear boy? That wasn’t a good name.

“Lance,” he decided quickly. “I name you Lance.”

The malakh’s mouth widened in an O but he didn’t reply.

Adam took his malakh’s arm and led the poor thing out of the pit. “Your holiness, I have tethered a malakh.”

The Grand Cleric and High Priests approached him. “ _ Not  _ an A-3, I suspect, Toni,” the visiting High Priest remarked to the local one.

“This is a weak malakh, Initiate,” the Grand Cleric said as he inspected the creature. Adam’s heart leapt at the acknowledgement of his initiation, despite the preceding criticism. “It holds a weapon, so it seems to be a fighter. But it seems like it would snap like a twig at the slightest pressure.”

“Lance can fight,” Adam said. “He’s stronger than he looks.” Michael had been so high up, or at least Adam had thought so, and all alone. He  _ had  _ to have some power, right?”

“No, I don’t think so,” the Grand Cleric said, shooting him down with zero guilt in his voice. “You will be assigned the position of fifth-rank exorcist. We’ll see how quickly your malakh breaks.”

Was - was the holiest member of the Order  _ mocking  _ him? Not possible. Adam just had a persecution complex, or something. “Yes, your holiness,” he muttered, trying not to sound too ungrateful. He’d rather be a middling priest than the lowest rank of exorcist, but it was sacrilegious to question the Grand Cleric.

“You are dismissed, Exorcist Milligan. Your Temple will handle your assignment.”

Adam exited the ritual chamber on the opposite side from where he’d entered, dragging Michael along, who didn’t quite seem to understand the concept of walking and instead floated just above the ground with his toes skimming it.

“Come on, Lance,” Adam said, sighing. “I’ll show you my room. Or my ex-room, I guess. They’re probably gonna send me to the middle of nowhere. Fifth-rank exorcist, for  _ fuck’s  _ sake.”

He jumped as cold lips suddenly pressed against his ear. “My name is Michael,” the malakh murmured.

“I know, I know. But you can’t say that out loud, not on Earth. People can use your true name to hurt you, you know. So we’re calling you Lance.”

“Oh,” Michael said, still sounding puzzled, but he withdrew to a regular distance from Adam. 

Adam touched his ear, feeling a phantom wetness where Michael’s lips had touched it.

As they walked out of the temple, a bunch of other fresh initiates were milling around, gossiping with each other about what everyone had been ranked. Adam and his pale malakh were greeted with snide looks, quickly turned away to hide the derision of the other initiates. Adam flushed and didn’t bother to interact with any of his classmates, instead taking Michael back to the dormitory. He’d never liked any of them anyway.

“This sucks,” he said, flopping onto his bed with annoyance. Michael stood at the doorway, watching him silently. Adam hadn’t realised malakhim were so dead in the eyes.

Or maybe it was just his shitty one.

“Lance, come here,” he ordered, and the malakh gazed at him before clambering over to his bed.

“You  _ can  _ fight, right?” he asked. His malakh cocked his head thoughtfully, and didn’t respond.

“Great. Well.” He was fucked. Maybe his best option was to desert as soon as they sent him on assignment and he was out of sight of the Temple.

The Initiation ceremony was held that evening. Adam’s classmates who had managed to attain cleric or higher exorcist positions walked on stage to receive their official ranking with enthusiastic applause from the audience. When it was Adam’s turn, there was polite applause at best. He had no friends or family to cheer him on, and it felt like he had already been forgotten when he shook hands with the High Priest on stage.

There was a party afterwards. Adam roamed the edges of the hall like a hungry ghost, snacking on food and completely invisible. This was his life now, as a fifth-rank exorcist, he thought.

The dormitories were emptied as clerics and priests relocated to new lodgings in the Temple; only exorcists remained, and only until they received their first assignments. Michael stood over him as he fell asleep, and an intolerable loneliness clutched at him when he woke up and even his malakh was gone.

“Lance?” he whispered. After a few seconds Michael reappeared, in the exact spot he had been where Adam had fallen asleep. His expression was as blank as any malakh’s, and though it wasn’t warm, at least it was reliable.

It was about a week until Adam received his assignment. In the interim he spent most of his time training and sparring with other exorcists and their malakhim. Michael, for whatever reason, did not participate, but Adam could still use and experiment with his powers, newly augmented by his bond with the malakh. Despite being such a weak malakh, Adam’s magic had become explosively stronger and he struggled to keep his spells from becoming entirely chaotic. His sparring partners seemed to have no such difficulties. Another incompetency on Adam’s part.

He was summoned to the High Priest’s office for his assignment, and sat in front of her desk with trepidation. Her eyes skimmed over him and his malakh with disinterest. “Adam. Yes. Good morning.”

“Good morning, good mother,” he said politely.

“Let’s see. The Order has decided to assign you to patrol the Myrenian polar region. From the Myrene icecaps down to the Francine mountain range. As an exorcist, the exact route you patrol is up to you, but you are expected to cover the entire region throughout your patrol. The settlements in the region are Port Arvos, Longtooth and Vavyria. The Order has arranged for your passage to Port Arvos from Port Greyden on the S.S. Mattyr which will set sail tomorrow afternoon.” She handed him a file which, when he flicked through it, seemed to be mostly maps and geographical information. “Any questions?”

“No, good mother.”

The icecaps? He was going to die of cold before he saw a single demon, wasn’t he.

Back in the dormitory he packed up his belongings into a backpack, chatting away to Michael. “We’re actually in Port Greyden now, actually, kind of. The Temple is attached to the city, but I guess for some reason they don’t consider it part of it. Anyway, I’ll show you some cool places there tomorrow. We can go shopping. You ever been shopping?”

Michael was as expressionless as ever. Talking to one’s malakh was  _ probably  _ a sign of insanity, but it wasn’t like Adam had anyone else to talk to.

“Cool, yeah. It’ll be fun.”

Adam left the Temple with little fanfare the next morning. With no one to say goodbye to, he simply left the grounds of the Temple and was gone. He headed into the port, his hand firmly wrapped around Michael’s, trying to keep the malakh grounded. Michael had by this point figured out how feet worked, and was almost moving like a real boy.

Adam had been given a small allowance by the temple, and he spent most of it buying a single big winter’s coat in the hopes of not freezing to death in his polar exile. Michael seemed mildly interested in the clothing store, looking through the trousers and the jackets, but Adam had to pull him away. “We don’t have enough money to give you a makeover. Sorry,” he said, patting the malakh on the shoulder. Michael’s gaze slowly turned to the hand touching him before returning blankly to Adam’s face.

Michael had first manifested in graceful white robes which he was now stuck in, the same as all malakhim Adam had seen wear, but he wondered if that was his own biases coming into play when he had summoned Michael to Earth. Maybe the malakh would prefer more practical clothes.

It was hard to tell, considering Michael didn’t say anything. Adam would look into buying him pants the next time the Order paid him an allowance.

He went to the docks at noon, had his name ticked off the list of passengers booked on the S.S. Mattyr, and boarded with Michael trailing behind. People glanced at him and Michael with wonder; outside of the Temple it was not so readily apparent how wispy and weak the malakh was. Adam tucked himself away in a corner of his shared cabin, unwilling to engage with the rough-looking people travelling to the frozen port town of Arvos.

Adam hadn’t been on a ship since his mom had been eaten by demons and the exorcists that saved him had sent him up north to the Temple. He clung to the floor now as he was sent even further north, the boat sailing away from the warm pretense of home and into the icy seas of the polar region. Michael picked him up and put him on the bed after the first few hours, frowning down at him; Adam didn’t know if he should thank him or not. 

He didn’t know how many days had passed when the ship finally pulled into port, its constant motion finally lulling. Michael pulled him out of bed and Adam weakly leaned on him; he must have looked as pale as the malakh. A few of the other passengers were looking at him with pity in their eyes, and Adam did his best to politely ignore them.

Port Arvos had clearly seen better days. It was filled with towering stone buildings, many of which likely lay empty; the file that Adam had been given noted that the port’s residents had been fleeing the northern town in recent years due to worsening climate conditions. Its streets were cracked and filthy but this didn’t seem to worry the kids playing tag through the town.

Adam stopped at the inn, first, to sit down and review the route he had planned on. The innkeeper came and greeted him cheerfully. “Hello, lord exorcist, welcome to the Smiling Fox. Did you need a room for the night?”

“Um,” Adam hesitated. It would be nice to sleep in a real room for one night, instead of transitioning immediately from cramped and torturous ship’s cabin to camping out in the ice plateaus. But money was an issue. “How much?”

“Free, of course, lord exorcist!” the innkeeper said with fake hurt. “Thank you for your service.”

“Oh,” Adam said, embarrassed. “Yes, then, please.” He did remember in his home village how thrilled everyone had been whenever exorcists came by. He’d forgotten, living in the Temple filled with clerics and malakhs, that exorcists were usually many people’s only hope against the demons that plagued their rural settlements.

He was endlessly grateful when the innkeeper even brought him a plate of hot food and a warm cocoa. “You’ll need this to keep your spirits up, lord exorcist,” the innkeeper said warmly, slapping him on the back and returning to his bar.

Michael watched him eat. “So you  _ do  _ eat,” he commented, and Adam nearly choked on his food.

“Yeah? Of course I do,” he managed to say.

“You didn’t eat while we were on the water. I did not understand.”

“I was seasick,” Adam muttered. It wasn’t  _ quite  _ true, but he didn’t feel like explaining.

Michael lapsed back into silence, and Adam felt a bit bad, like he had discouraged the malakh.

“Do you like it here?” he asked.

“It is warmer than outside,” Michael said.

“Is that good?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, well, guess you’re gonna find out,” Adam shrugged, and added at Michael’s questioning look, “We’re gonna be spending a lot more time outdoors than in.”

***

God, the town that Adam stayed in for all of one  _ night  _ sent him off with more hurrah than his Temple of five years. A few people in the town had come to him with requests about troublesome local demons which Adam had promised to try and deal with, and they came to wave him off.

The icy wind picked up as soon as they left the high stone walls of the town and Adam drew his warm coat tight around his body, shivering. The roads were barely visible on the frost-covered plains and here on the fringes of society demons prowled a-plenty. The ones stupid enough to approach an exorcist on the road were weak enough that even Adam, in all his noviceness, was able to run them through pretty quickly with his sword.

“Where are we going?” Michael said, after a couple of hours on the road. Adam took out the map and pointed out the path he had charted for them.

“In a loop? I don’t understand.”

“Our job is to defend against demons in this region. We have to patrol the whole area,” Adam tried to explain. 

“Demons?”

“Like these,” Adam said, gesturing at the tiny ones grappling at each other a little ways off the road. “But bigger and more dangerous.”

“What do we do?”

“Uh. We kill them.”

“Oh,” Michael said. “That seems simple enough.”

He was surprisingly confident for such a weak malakh. Adam hoped that he would be a little more cautious in battle.

They had to go off the path and push through more dangerous territories in order to find a cave one of the townspeople had mentioned, one that hosted a large crab-like demon that had been attacking travellers and bringing them back here to eat. Michael continued to hang back as Adam led the way and cut down the demons that sprang out at him.

He wished the malakh would at least  _ pretend  _ to be useful.

They hunkered down before the crab’s lair, peeking through the cracks in the icy wall to survey the foe. It was smaller than Adam had been led to believe. “Okay, you are going to help out here, right?” Adam checked. What was the point of a tool that didn’t do anything?

Michael tilted his head. “With what?”

“Killing the demon,” Adam said, frustrated.

Michael glanced through the cracks. “Is that also a demon?”

“Yes!” Adam hissed. How could a  _ malakh  _ not recognise a demon? “Like all the other ones I killed.”

“Oh. Were those not regular animals?”

“No!” Adam wanted to pull his hair out. In all their classes no one had ever told them that malakhs were completely clueless about the world. He had in fact been under the impression that any malakh he formed a pact with would understand their role in the world already.

Did he find a baby malakh or something? He peered at Michael. But he had  _ seen  _ child malakhim, and this tower of sticks didn’t resemble them in the slightest.

There was a screeching behind them, and Adam spun around with horror to find a  _ much  _ larger crab demon skittering across the icy cave floor towards them, murder in its eyes.

Adam nervously pulled out his sword but Michael pushed his hand down and approached the demon himself. It charged directly at him but without flinching Michael grabbed one of the pincers aimed at his head and somehow lifted the entire creature into the air before solidly slamming it into the ground. Adam gaped as he heard its legs shatter.

Michael touched the face of the creature and Adam felt a strange heat burn in his chest as simultaneously fire erupted from Michael’s hand and across the creature’s body, incinerating its shell and flesh entirely. The demon screamed in pain as it disintegrated in the flames, and its child from the other room came rushing out in defence of its parent. Adam watched in disbelief as Michael flicked his hand and shot another fire spell at the smaller demon, killing it just as cleanly.

Adam approached him when the fire was gone. “You can fight, huh?” he said, actually impressed.

“Of course,” Michael said. “I am your Lance.”

“But you didn’t use it,” Adam pointed out, mystified.

Michael glanced back at the weapon sheathed on his back. “I only use this on worthy opponents. It’s not for harmless little creatures like this.”

“If it’s harmless, then why did you attack it?”

Michael tilted his head in that increasingly familiar way. “Because you were scared of it.”

“I wasn’t scared of it,” Adam argued.

To his surprise, Michael laughed. It was the most emotive he’d seen the malakh yet, and he couldn’t help from easing into a smile himself.

He found a drier part of the cave that he could conceivably warm up in, and pulled out his blanket from his backpack to sit on. “Let’s rest,” he suggested.

Michael continued to stand over him, so Adam patted a spot next to him on the blanket. “Come sit,” he ordered, and the malakh obeyed.

Adam pored through his notes. “So that’s the crab demon done. Layla will be happy. Uh, so I guess we gotta find that flying thing that was eating crops and the lake monster.”

He checked on his map where they were supposed to be, none of them kindly on the route Adam had already planned out. Michael peered over his shoulder. “Are we heading back to town, then?” he asked.

“What? Why would we do that?”

“To let Layla know her warehouse is safe.”

So he  _ was  _ paying attention. But circling back to the town hadn’t been on Adam’s agenda. He scratched his head. “Uhh, yeah. We’ll have to do that, I guess. But we’ll try to knock these other ones out first, so we don’t have to keep doubling back.”

“Very strategic,” Michael said, and Adam couldn’t tell if he was being genuinely approving or extremely sarcastic.

Adam grabbed some of his packed food to eat. He knew he couldn’t really have three meals a day out on the road, but if he was going back to town, well…

“Hey, do you want some of this?” he asked Michael.

Michael peered down at the handful of nuts he proffered. “I don’t need to eat,” he said.

“Yeah, but do you want to?”

Michael stared at him and didn’t respond.

***

The day was still relatively young so Adam reluctantly left the safety of the cleared cave to find more demons to dispose. It was a little easier travelling now that he knew that Michael was actually able to back him up somewhat. 

The malakh was a silent travelling companion, only speaking up when Adam spoke to him first. Adam didn’t mind; he’d never really seen anyone at the Temple talk with their malakhs anyway. It was a miracle that Michael responded to him as much as he did.

The flying demon was some kind of engorged locust; Michael knocked it down with a thin beam of light energy and Adam ran over and stabbed the shit out of it before it could escape. He examined the corpse, impressed at his own work. Maybe he was gonna be better at this exorcist thing than he thought.

It occurred to him that locusts swarm, so maybe locust demons do the same thing. They explored the entire area and Adam found three more flying about before locating and destroying the nest. “Hell yeah,” he said, grinning at Michael. Michael tilted his head and gave the smallest of smiles in reply.

Adam would take it.

He found another cave to set up camp in, a smaller one this time, but it would do its job of keeping him out of the snow. Wrapped in his blanket and lying on his bedroll right next to the fire, it was intolerably cold and he couldn’t sleep. He lay there shivering for ages as Michael sat and watched him curiously.

“Guess I’m not sleeping tonight,” he said wryly, sitting up and warming his hands on the campfire. Why couldn’t his stupid body just be happy with the fact that it was warmer here than outside?

“Why?” Michael asked.

“It’s too cold,” Adam explained. “I can’t sleep.”

Michael unwrapped the blanket against his protestations and lay down next to the bedroll. “Come,” he said, patting the bedroll in an imitation of Adam from earlier that day. 

“Lance, I need that,” Adam said, grabbing for the blanket, but the malakh held it away from him until he reluctantly lay back down. 

His head and back fell onto something soft and  _ warm  _ \- feathers? He sat up with surprise and twisted around. There were indeed pale feathers - no, they were  _ translucent  _ \- extending out from Michael’s body.

“Are these yours?” he said stupidly, touching the feathers. “I didn’t know malakhim had wings.”

“Malakhim? Some do,” Michael said, sounding distinctly puzzled. “Lie down.”

Adam lay back on the strange blanket of feathers and Michael curled the end of his wing around him. “Is this warm enough?”

It was lukewarm, like a bath that had been sitting for a while. “If it could be warmer, I wouldn’t mind.”

The feathers glowed, almost appeared to grow more solid as they heated up. Adam snuggled comfortably into Michael’s warm embrace; now it was like he was sitting  _ in  _ the fire. “That’s great. Thanks, Lance.”

“You are welcome, lord exorcist,” Michael said quietly, and Adam chuckled softly at the title. He wasn’t a  _ lord  _ by any stretch, but maybe the exorcist thing was working out.

Adam was a little surprised when he woke up and Michael was still there - he  _ always  _ had to say Michael’s name in the morning to get him to manifest - but, he supposed, he would have frozen overnight had the malakh left.

“Good morning,” he said cheerfully, sitting up and stretching.

“Hello, Adam,” Michael said.

“Thanks for staying,” he said, watching in wonder as Michael’s wing retracted and disappeared from sight. “Uh, that didn’t hurt to have me lying on all night, did it?”

“Staying?” Michael asked quietly.

“Normally you go away at night,” Adam said.

“I cannot leave your side. You are tethered to me.” That was kind of an odd way to put it. “But I do usually turn my attentions elsewhere while you rest.”

“Where?” Adam said, curiously. He didn’t think a low-ranking malakh would have  _ attentions _ .

Michael turned his eyes skyward. Or, cave-ceilingward. A secret? Or the malakh was full of shit.

“But, since we are currently in the wilderness, I thought it best to keep an eye out here,” Michael continued. “I would be unhappy if you were to be attacked and killed in your sleep.”

“Gee, thanks, Lance,” Adam said drily. “Didn’t know you had such a soft spot for me.”

Adam would be mad at how earnestly confused Michael looked at even the simplest sarcasm, but his adorableness overrode his irritability.

“We gotta find this lake,” Adam said, laying out the map as he ate breakfast. “There’s a tiny path to it, I doubt we’re gonna find it underneath the snow. Can barely see the main path as is.”

“In the lake dwells a monster for you to slay,” Michael said.

“Yeah. Hey, you might need to get your sword out. Can’t see fire working too well on a fish.”

“Fire destroys all evil,” Michael said calmly. “Your concerns are misplaced.”

“Oh?” Adam said, half-jokingly, half actually taken aback. Now his malakh was  _ arguing  _ with him? They weren’t meant to do that, right?

But it was kind of funny, so Adam wasn’t going to tell him off.

The wind was picking up, and Adam looked at the darkening clouds in the sky with worry. “I hope it’s not gonna blizzard on us,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because I am a human and the weather can and will kill me. And I’m sure you as well, if you’re not careful.”

Michael looked up at the sky thoughtfully. Adam was relieved when the clouds had cleared just half an hour later, and the sun was even shining bright enough to put a dent in some of the snow.

“Why did your masters send you out where the elements could kill you?” Michael wondered out loud.

His  _ masters _ ? Adam didn’t like the sound of that, even if it was technically true. “Cause I’m just a grunt, so they gave me a shitty job. You heard how disappointed the Grand Cleric was when all I could summon was you, right? They weren’t going to reward me with some cushy city job when those all go to the clerics and exorcists with malakhim worth a damn.”

“But I am a very powerful being,” Michael said. “I don’t understand why they graded you poorly.”

Did Michael have some kind of super-inflated ego that he had been keeping hidden? “You’re powerful, sure, compared to humans, but not to other malakhim,” he said, trying to let his malakh down gently.

“No. I am vastly more powerful than any malakhim,” Michael declared confidently.

...Okay then.

Now that the sun was streaming down, glinting prettily off the ice and snow, it was actually a rather beautiful walk to the lake. Holding Michael’s hand, although it may not have been tactically ideal for walking in a land roamed by demons, Adam could imagine coming here on a date with a lover.

Not that anyone was going to date a dead-ended exorcist.

“Okay, uh,” he said, looking down at the frozen lake from a vantage point atop a cliff. “So the lake is frozen over. Wonder how the fish is getting out. I guess Vernon said it’s attacking the fisherman; I guess it jumps out through the holes they create.”

“Jumps out would be difficult, unless the holes are larger than I imagining,” Michael said. “Tendrils, possibly, reaching through them.”

“You think it’s that big?” Adam asked.

“Can you not see it?” Michael wondered. 

Adam squinted at the glittering surface of the ice. He supposed there  _ was  _ some kind of big shadow in the water below, but it would be hard to say whether it was something in the water or just the depths of the lake.

“Not really,” he said reluctantly. “You can make it out?”

“Yes,” Michael said thoughtfully, withdrawing the lance sheathed on his back. “Lord exorcist, it would be unwise for you to approach this beast. I would suggest you remain on this hill and use your spells from a distance.”

“What? I’m not going to let you attack it alone,” Adam protested.

“I will not be attacking it alone. You will be attacking it with me, from a ranged distance.”

Adam sighed, and Michael eyed him oddly. “I am your Lance, and I am helping you fight demons. As per your instructions,” he pointed out.

“Fine. Just, if it’s too much, back off so we can restrategise, okay?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Lance, I’m not a lord,” Adam said tersely.

“You are  _ my  _ lord, are you not?” Michael said, a disarmingly soft smile on his face as he surveyed his prey down below. “Let me fight in your honour.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

Michael leapt down to the lake at once, dancing lightly on the ice in a wide circle keeping his eyes trained on the depths below. Adam carefully prepared some missile spells as Michael completed the circle, then came into the center of the lake. He jumped up and his lance came down,  _ smashing  _ the ice and shattering it to the boundaries of the circle he’d weakened.

A painful eldritch howl came from the monster lurking below. It tore into Adam’s eardrums and ruptured his mind, but he forced himself to stay steady and focus on the target.

The beast tried to leap out of the lake and slam into Michael, but the hole he had created was not  _ quite  _ large enough; it headbutted itself on the rim instead. Michael took advantage of its brief daze to stab his lance through its back, and Adam loosed some of his magic bolts of energy at the demon.

It howled louder; Adam winced in pain and took a step back, but Michael just looked angry and stabbed it in a different place before jumping back just in time to avoid getting sliced at with its razor sharp tendrils. Michael moved through the air like an acrobat, flipping and spinning around the assaulting tendrils, but Adam couldn’t stop and admire him. He prepared and launched more bursts of energy at the tendrils, slowing them enough for his malakh to chop them off.

Black ooze spurted out whenever a limb was chopped off, and it polluted the lakewater and the malakh’s face and clothes. Michael seemed to pay it no mind, however, and dove down deep with his lance once the tendrils were dealt with, dragging it all the way through the demon’s body and tearing it in half. Adam halted his missiles and nervously watched the cloud of black ink spilled between the demon’s halves; he only allowed himself to breathe once Michael emerged from the filthy water.

The malakh hauled the creature’s remains out of the water and onto the shores of the lake, frowning at the black ooze-stained carcass. Adam came running down from the cliff to inspect his malakh, but Michael’s focus was on the dead demon. Adam looked down to realise its corpse was slowing shifting form into a smaller, less demonic looking beast.

“What…?” he said, looking to Michael in confusion.

“Is this a usual occurrence for demons? Reverting to their uncorrupted forms?”

“Not, uh, it wasn’t mentioned in any of my lessons,” Adam said slowly. Of course Michael would be even more clueless than him.

The malakh ran a finger down his own face, collecting the black substance dripping down his cheek. “Hmm,” he said thoughtfully.

“Oh,” Adam said, stepping closer. “Let me -”

A soft pulse had him stumbling a few steps backward. “Lance?”

“Don’t touch this,” Michael said, frowning at him. “I think it may be corrosive.”

His own skin was a little pink where the ooze had been, but it didn’t look that bad. On the other hand, Adam could see the black substance burning through the snow and ground beneath where it was dripping from the demon’s corpse. He backed up slowly and let Michael clean himself off.

“A container, perhaps,” Michael said to himself. Adam watched as what looked like a small glass vial appeared in the malakh’s hands and was filled with the monster’s ooze.

“What are you doing with that?” he called out.

Michael stowed it away in his robes. “Perhaps we can have it looked at,” he suggested. “I would like to know what it is.”

“Uh, sure,” Adam said. That really seemed like the kind of decision  _ he  _ should be making.

Michael’s robes were now tattered, covered in holes where it had been splashed with ooze. It was… revealing. Adam hadn’t realised malakhim came, uh, fully equipped.

Michael followed his line of sight. “Is something wrong?”

“Uh, you can’t walk around wearing basically nothing. Um, you can borrow my spare set of clothes.”

“You sound nervous,” Michael said.

Nervous was the wrong word entirely. Embarrassed on Michael’s behalf was more like it. Adam retrieved his spare shirt and pants. “Here, if you’re clean.”

“Hmm,” said Michael. “May I borrow your water skin?”

He removed his tattered robes and Adam watched curiously as he poured the water over his body. Adam watched as the water dripped off his skin. It was strangely hypnotic for some reason.

“Are you alright, my lord?” Michael asked. “Your face is red.”

Red? Adam touched his cheeks, which were burning. “That fight was kind of intense,” he admitted. “Must have got the blood pumping.”

“I see.” Michael took the clothes offered and covered up his pale and gangly body once more.

“Well, good work,” Adam said, examining the scene they had created. “That’s three for three.”

“I’m sure the townspeople will be grateful,” Michael commented.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re grateful. What matters is that the demons have been defeated.”

“Very noble,” Michael said.

Okay, Adam was  _ sure  _ that one was sarcasm. But he couldn’t complain, because he had a niggling feeling that if Michael was using sarcasm, it’s because he learned it from his owner.

“Let’s head back to the port,” he said, looking up at the sun with a sigh. “Wish we could keep going on our patrol. It would be way easier with the sun shining like this.”

“Does the sun not usually shine here?” Michael said, puzzled. “It was very warm at your home.”

“Yeah, cause it’s summer. But in the polar fields it snows all year long, I think.”

“I see,” Michael said. 

They had gotten a fair distance away from Port Arvos, and the sun was setting by the time they returned. Adam was a little bewildered to walk inside the gates to see what had to be just about everyone in the village outside, in the streets and sitting on their own roofs, staring at the sunset. 

“What’s going on?” he asked a man near the town entrance, thinking this was part of a town festival or something.

“The sun hasn’t shone on Port Arvos in over a decade,” the man replied hoarsely. “It’s a miracle.”

“Oh,” Adam said. He hadn’t realised it was  _ that  _ rare. He glanced back at Michael, who was looking at the humans with confusion. Michael looked back to him but didn’t say anything. 

Adam found his way to the innkeeper, who was staring at the horizon along with everyone else. “Uh, hey,” he said, and the innkeeper started and turned to him. “Is it okay if I grab another room tonight?”

“Oh - lord exorcist - of course,” the innkeeper said, his tone more muted than the other day. “You -” His eyes flicked towards the sky. “This isn’t  _ your  _ doing, is it, lord exorcist?”

“Uh, no,” Adam said. How would that even be possible? He didn’t have control over the elements. “I’m just an exorcist.”

“Of course, of course,” the innkeeper said, laughing heartily. He fished out the room key from his collection and handed it to Adam. “The same room as before, lord exorcist.”

“Thanks,” Adam said. “Um, you can just call me Adam.”

“Adam. Very well,” he said, eyes sparkling.

There was a priestess standing in front of the town church. She wore the fancy robes of a High Priest. Adam wasn’t entirely sure if he was supposed to have checked in with her, but when she caught his eye she gave an unmisinterpretable “come here” nod and he dragged himself over.

“Milligan, is it?” she said shortly. “A couple of the locals mentioned you. Gave you jobs to do. Pay them no mind; exorcists choose their own paths.” She had a very posh voice, but it was her attitude that pissed Adam off.

“I already took care of the demons that were troubling them,” Adam told her. “I don’t mind altering my  _ path  _ in order to help the people we are sworn to protect.”

“Hm. Except we are not sworn to protect anyone. Our job is to defeat evil.” Her malakh, a thin girl that looked even wispier than Michael hid behind the priestess, great chains around her neck. 

“I think the latter must involve the former,” Adam said, keeping his tone polite so he could not be accused of disrespecting the High Priest.

“Hm,” she said. “Very well. And do you happen to know what’s caused the change in weather?”

“Not at all,” Adam told her honestly. 

The priestess’s malakh glanced around her owner and peered at Adam’s with wide eyes. Michael didn’t seem to be paying attention to the debate at all, instead staring blankly into space.

“Fine. Well, you are dismissed. But heed my warning, and mind your priorities,” she told him, before returning her gaze back to the sky.

Adam headed off to the inn. “Jeez, can you believe her? What a prick” he said to Michael, but it appeared Michael had decided to go back into silent mode. A shame, Adam was starting to like the sound of his voice.

Adam circled the places on the map they had travelled to in the past couple of days. Both for the sake of memories, and as presumably safe spots until more demons moved in. Although maybe they didn’t even need them. The demons they had come across they had defeated pretty easily. Maybe they were weakened by the icy climate.

“Hey, we make a pretty good team, don’t we?” he remarked to Michael.

“What do you mean?” 

Adam grinned to himself. It was dawning on him that Michael only kept his lips sealed around  _ other people _ .

“All those demons we killed. We took em out without a scratch.”

“Oh,” Michael said, lifting his brow and looking away. “Well, I suppose you’re doing your best to support me.”

“Hey!” Adam said, laughing and flicking his pen at Michael. The malakh looked down at it as it bounced off him.

“No, but seriously - I thought we were gonna die, like, an hour out from town from frost alone. This is going way better than I thought it would.”

“I have no intention of letting you die,” Michael said, repeating the same eerie sentiment from before.

“I know. I feel the same way,” Adam replied, challenging him. The smallest of pink tinges rose to the malakh’s cheeks.

“Were I in a position to be saved by you, all would already be lost, I fear,” he said somberly.

“What are you talking about? I already saved you from walking around with your dick out, didn’t I?”

Michael glanced down at his genitalia at the mention. “That is not what I meant.”

“You sure?” Adam said, smiling. Michael went and sat by the window, ignoring him.

The innkeeper came and knocked on his door with a tray of hot food when it was completely dark out. Adam thanked him profusely and ate it on the bed, doing his best not to make a mess. He caught Michael looking at him a couple of times with disgust; the malakh would quickly turn his attention back outside.

When he woke up the next morning his malakh was kneeling by his bedside, his eyes watching Adam’s face closely. Adam blinked sleepily at him. “Everything okay, Lance?”

“Yes, Adam. Good morning.”

“Any reason your nose is touching mine?”

“They are not touching. I was making sure you were warm, as you require it to get a good night’s rest.”

“Well, if I’m not tossing and turning, you can probably just assume I’m fine,” Adam said.

“Yes. You were tossing and turning.”

“Oh.” He didn’t really know what to say to that. Had he been having a nightmare? He didn’t remember.

“You can just wake me up and ask,” he said at last.

“Very well, my lord.”

“Knock it off with the my lord stuff,” he said, well aware as he turned onto his other side that it was an argument he would lose. Michael didn’t even dignify it with a response.

He could see snow falling outside the window once more. “Ah, it’s snowing,” he remarked. “That sunshine was short lived. The townspeople will be disappointed.”

“Yes. I didn’t realise the weather followed such a stubborn pattern here. It would never have occurred to me that a clear day would be remarkable.”

Adam shrugged. “Yeah, well. The climate’s been getting pretty messed up since the Purge.”

“The Purge?”

“Yeah, about a hundred years ago God came to Earth and sealed away the archdemons that terrorised the planet, and formed the Church and the Order to deal with their suboordinates. But I guess summoning him upset the balance of the elements, or something.”

“God?” Michael said, and that unsettled Adam. Malakhim were servants of God; he ordered them to form pacts with humans, and they were forced to obey. How could Michael not know of him?

“God, yes. The Metatron?” he tried.

Michael cocked his head thoughtfully. “...I see. Archdemons, was it?”

“Yeah. Once they were gone, their demon armies became directionless, making it much easier to take them out.”

“But in exchange, the elements became unbalanced, and the climate took a turn for the worse.”

“I - what? No,” Adam said. “No, I don’t think that’s why.”

“Why not?” Michael asked, sounding genuinely curious. “Because you haven’t been taught so?”

Adam opened and closed his mouth in disbelief at his own malakh. “You need to shut up,” he muttered.

It was childish, but he wasn’t going to be lectured to by his own tool.

Michael didn’t try to continue the discussion, to Adam’s relief. He got ready for the day, mournfully looking at the small handful of coins left in his pouch.

Maybe he could manifest some clothes with a spell, if they were too expensive here. Otherwise he didn’t know what he was gonna do.

“Hey, do you like those kinds of clothes?” he thought to ask Michael. “Or do you want to go back to robes?”

Michael stared blankly at him.

“Hello?”

“Am I allowed to talk now?” Michael asked.

“Yeah,” Adam said, confused. “Oh. I didn’t mean you - nevermind.”

“Clothes are immaterial to me. I will wear whatever you find pleasing, human.”

_ Human _ ? Ouch. Paired with a carefully neutral tone, Adam suspected he’d actually pissed Michael off.

“Okay, malakh,” he said, rolling his eyes. He came downstairs with Michael stalking behind him and greeted the innkeeper, who was marginally less cheerful than last night.

“Do you know where I can buy some clothes in this town?” he asked.

“Margie’s,” the innkeeper recommended. “She’ll do you good. She’s two blocks away and around the corner. Even has a sign, the sweetheart.”

“Thanks,” Adam said, and headed off. First he checked in with the townsfolk that had asked him to take care of the demons. They all seemed surprised and thrilled he had already cleared them out; having met the High Priest of this place, Adam could imagine they weren’t familiar with having someone actually willing to help them with their problems.

He went to Margie’s, it was a tiny little shop with nothing on display. No one was downstairs so he called out “Hello?” and a fat young woman came rushing down the stairs. 

“Hello, hello!” she said. “Oh, it’s an exorcist! Is everything alright, sir?”

“Yes, um, nice to meet you. I’m Adam.”

“Margaret Spoon. But everyone calls me Margie,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

“Right. I was hoping to grab a spare set of clothes before I headed back out on patrol. You don’t have anything premise, do you? If it fits me or my malakh, even loosely, it’s probably fine. I don’t want to be any trouble.”

“No trouble at all!” she said. “But everything is made-to-order. When do you have to leave?”

“Ah - whenever, really.” Adam didn’t even know if anyone would bother to check the reports of a fifth-rank exorcist, let alone pore over his schedule.

“Great! Let me measure up you and your malakh, and I’ll have things ready for you in a couple of days!”

“Sure. Um, how much for a set of clothes?”

“Free for you, lord exorcist,” she said. “Of course.”

Adam wanted to protest, but he really didn’t have that much money. He was certain that people back in the city didn’t give things away for free to Order people like this, but maybe this was just another side effect of being out in the sticks.

_ Probably  _ nothing sinister going on.

Michael looked uncomfortable as the seamstress took a tape measure to him. She hesitated and looked up at Adam. “It’s okay to touch him, isn’t it? I’ve never dressed a malakh, I must admit. I thought they wore Order robes.”

“He likes pants,” Adam decided for him. But he wasn’t petty enough to enjoy Michael’s discomfort at being touched. “Um, maybe I can take the measurements.”

“Alright,” she agreed, and very strictly directed him as he measured Michael’s body for her. Michael relaxed slightly once it was his owner measuring him. Weirdo malakh, Adam thought.

Margie was kind enough to let him order  _ two  _ sets of clothes for himself, robes and pants. If he could fit it into his backpack, he thought, it may be worth it. Especially if there was more of that black ooze stuff around. Maybe it only occurred this far in the north, so they didn’t bother covering it in lessons.

They had a couple of days to waste before they went on patrol for real this time. Adam decided he and Michael could practice exorcising on the lesser demons in the vicinity of the town. He noticed his malakh’s muscles ease as soon as they left Port Arvos’s walls.

“You okay, Lance? You didn’t seem too happy to be measured by Margie.”

Michael shrugged. “I don’t like humans.”

_ “What?”  _ Adam asked. Whatever he had been expecting Michael to say, that wasn’t it. “What about me?” He had thought he and Michael were genuinely getting on, despite the occasional awkward moment like earlier.

“You are rude,” Michael said, “But it is difficult to dislike you. I suppose because you are more pitiable than anything else.”

“I’m not pitiable,” Adam argued.

“You work hard, and yet your efforts are constantly disregarded by your betters. I find that pitiable.”

“Well, don’t.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “You would rather I dislike you?”

“I think I would. Yeah,” Adam said hotly. It didn’t even matter if Michael hated him. The malakh was tethered to him regardless.

“I see. In that case, you have a poor understanding of your own emotions.”

Adam swore at him under his breath. Michael  _ definitely  _ heard, and he was  _ definitely  _ not impressed. 


	2. In The Hall Of The Mountain King

They headed off on their patrol once they had received the clothes from Margie. The townspeople were even kinder in their farewell this time around, and sent Adam off with goodies for him to enjoy on the road.

Adam now felt tense travelling with Michael, the self-declared misanthrope. He had thought Michael  _ shy  _ more than anything. Perhaps the malakh was simply unable to come to terms with that part of his personality. Adam hoped so.

At any rate, he did his best to try and take the lead in battles. He hated himself for feeling like he had to prove something to Michael, but he couldn’t help it. There was something so aggravating about the way Michael acted like he didn’t need him.

_ Someone  _ had to need Adam. Even if it was an ungrateful little malakh. Otherwise what was the point of being here? Michael wouldn’t even be on Earth if Adam hadn’t summoned and bound him. He  _ did  _ need him. End of story.

There were plenty of demons about, and Michael seemed to have a nose for finding the bigger, nastier ones. After the first couple times Michael looked off the path thoughtfully and they got ambushed by a huge monster a while later, Adam thought to order him to tell him when he sensed one so they could go exorcise it on their own terms.

No black ooze. Not yet.

The sun came out enough times that Adam honestly wondered to himself if the townspeople of the port had been fucking with him. Otherwise, there was something  _ seriously  _ wrong if weather patterns were changing this rapidly, and he didn’t really want to have to think about that. Even when dark storm clouds settled overhead and Adam bunkered down for the night expecting the worse, in the morning they’d be completely cleared, with the environment only lightly snowed on at most.

Maybe God was watching and finally rewarding Adam for a lifetime of suffering. It wasn’t the most ludicrous explanation for whatever was going on.

They passed by other travellers extremely rarely. Hardy merchants, mostly; Adam was happy to buy supplies off them and they were happy to take his coin. (It was incredible  _ how much  _ coin the bigger monsters in these parts had hoarded, considering they were truly in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps they had run into some not-so-hardy merchants. Adam was perfectly fine with keeping that chain of inheritance going.) 

One or two were actual other exorcists, and they would camp with Adam despite their disdain at the weakly malakh by his side.

Once, Adam crossed paths with a human-shaped demon. They were rare, and the ones that held their human shape like that were powerful. Adam didn’t even realise it was a demon until she was right next to him and he could  _ sense  _ her corruption emanating off of her. But she just strolled right on past him. Adam fidgeted with his sword, unsure if he needed to exorcise her or not.

“Did you know that was a demon?” he asked Michael once they were out of earshot.

Michael whipped his head around and stared after her. “To be honest, Adam, I’m still not sure of the difference between what you consider to be demons and regular animals. She just looks human to me.”

“She didn’t feel - evil? Twisted?”

“Do you want me to kill her?” Michael asked.

Adam hesitated. He put it  _ so  _ bluntly that it was painful. “Well - maybe I made a mistake.” If Michael killed her on his orders, and they realised posthumously it was a human after all, Adam didn’t know how he could live with that.

They were  _ so close  _ to the village of Longtooth when Michael’s head whipped around so quickly Adam could have sworn he heard it snapping. “No, Lance, not now,” he said wearily. “Inn first. Then demon.”

“No, we should deal with this one first.” Michael looked unsettled. 

“I can’t, I can’t. We’ll go there first thing in the morning. I promise.”

Michael paused. “I will escort you to the town. Then I will go deal with the demon. I believe it is unwise to leave it be for any amount of time.”

Adam hesitated. Michael didn’t usually argue with him after Adam shut him down once. He sighed.

“Well, I wouldn’t be a responsible owner if I let you wander off and get killed,” he said, rubbing his head. “Do you really think it’s that important?”

“Yes. Its aura is the same as the one in the lake.”

Oh. Visions of black ooze creeping into Michael’s ears, his mouth, entered Adam’s mind unbidden. He hadn’t told Michael about those nightmares.

Michael looked down at where Adam’s arm slid inside his. “Sure we can’t rest first? Don’t you want to be in your best condition?”

“I am always in my best condition,” Michael said calmly. “Are you heading to the village, then?” 

Adam shook his head. “Tethered means tethered,” he said, well aware that of course he was  _ physically  _ capable of separating from his malakh. 

He just didn’t want to.

“Very well,” Michael said, searching his face carefully. “But promise me you’ll remain a safe distance from the demon when we find it.”

Adam shook his head. “I’m not that tired. I’ll help you fight it.”

Michael pressed his brow against Adam’s, staring into his eyes with an unbearable intensity. “Adam, the best way for you to help is to remain at a safe distance. It will be more difficult for me to fight if you are in danger.”

“I’m not your damsel in distress,” Adam snapped. “You’re  _ my  _ malakh, you don’t tell  _ me  _ what to do.”

Michael pursed his lips and didn’t budge when Adam pushed at his chest. Their tangled arms caused him no more pain than this ultimate act of pity, this ultimate rejection from Michael.

“Please understand, lord exorcist,” Michael said, and he put his lips to and murmured something in Adam’s ear, something inaudible, intangible, incomprehensible; but it made Adam feel weak at the knees and light in the head. When he looked at Michael the malakh was more translucent than ever, and Adam could almost see the tiny ball of light that illuminated him from the inside out.

“What,” his throat was dry, so he swallowed. “What did you say?”

“It’s not important,” Michael said quietly. “But please stop arguing with me. I can fight best if my channeler is not at risk.”

Right. Cause Adam was still channeling Michael. That made sense, why hadn’t Michael just said that earlier? “Okay, Lance,” he agreed.

Michael looked distinctly unhappy and Adam didn’t understand. He had changed his mind, hadn’t he? “I’m not being sarcastic,” he clarified.

“I know,” Michael said, his voice still fragile and soft. “Thank you.”

Adam didn’t get it, but Michael went off the path, following whatever he had sensed, and Adam followed. So Michael was acting a little weird; they had been on the road for months now. He was sure the malakh would be back to normal after a good night’s sleep. Or meditation, or whatever it was Michael did at night.

They approached an enormous cave with ruined columns in front somewhat forming a path. Presumably they formed a proper path when they had stood straight however many years ago. Adam looked around with wonder as they entered the cave and he realised it was the ruins of some huge, ornate structure. An ancient temple, maybe? He’d seen drawings of them in books. Not sure he’d heard of one in the polar fields, though.

The ruins were  _ crawling  _ with demons. Adam and Michael slashed and burned their way through three levels of the temple, descending down further and further into its depths. The lower levels were much better preserved, and Adam could see the murals and sculptures of worship devoted to the temple’s god of worship.

It wasn’t God, though, the Metatron; the symbols and imagery were completely different to those that the Church and Order used.

“Who is this?” Adam said curiously, after they’d cleared the third sub-level. His hand brushed the bronze sculpture of a beautiful woman, fat and noble-looking.

“One of your Archdemons, I suspect,” Michael said, barely even glancing at it.

“An  _ Archdemon _ ? What? Why would someone devote a temple to an Archdemon?”

“People worship all kinds of things,” Michael said, clearly uninterested in the topic.

He was probably joking, Adam rationalised to himself. Adam was going to look up false gods the minute he got his hands on some books. Vavyria was supposed to be a proper city; Adam hoped it had a library. It had to, right? It was hundreds of miles away yet though. They hadn’t even made it to Longtooth yet.

They began proceeding down the stairs to the fourth sub-level, but Michael held Adam back with a hand. “Stay at the top of the staircase,” he instructed. “The beast lurks within.”

“But,” Adam began to protest, trying to squint through the darkness below. But he shouldn’t argue with Michael. Michael knew what was best.

Michael tilted his head and waited expectantly. “Yes, my lord?” he asked.

“Nevermind,” Adam said, embarrassed.

“Please tell me, lord exorcist,” Michael said.

Adam shouldn’t argue. “It’s just that I won’t be able to see you from up here,” he explained. “I’ll be worried.”

Michael frowned. “If you can’t see us, it can’t see you. I believe that is ideal.”

Adam stared helplessly at Michael. He shouldn’t argue with Michael, and he didn’t know why. He really wanted to.

The malakh seemed satisfied with their conversation and, armed with the lance, headed down the steps. Adam couldn’t see what was going on down there but soon heard the unmistakable sounds of conflict: metal on flesh, bodies being hurled into stone, magic whooshing through the air. 

Adam let out a pained gasp as the heat in his chest became an unbearable fire; he had been adjusting to the warmth he sometimes felt when Michael cast his spells, but never anything like this.

_ What the hell am I doing up here? I need to go help Michael _ , he scolded himself, and jogged down the steps.

“God save us all,” Adam muttered as the creature Michael was grappling with came into view. An enormous slug that took up most of the underground tunnel that emerged past the stairs, two houses tall and wide. It had huge gashes cutting into it all around, spilling huge amounts of the familiar black liquid all over the floor. Adam backed up a few more stairs; it wouldn’t help anyone if he went and got himself eaten alive by the stuff.

Michael was whizzing around the creature, fully in the air; Adam could just about see his wings fully extended, but they were somehow free of the black substance that the rest of Michael’s body was absolutely soaked in. Michael slashed with his lance in one hand and incinerating the slug with the other, the fire in Adam’s chest building more and more the longer the malakh kept burning.

The grace, the elegance, the sheer  _ power  _ of the malakh was overwhelming. How was this the shy, pale malakh that Adam had barely managed to summon? He danced around his enormous foe with such confident skill that Adam was dizzied just by watching it. He rested his head on the stone pillar beneath the steps. It was okay to just watch. He would just watch.

The slug demon growled at its opponent with a guttural, earth-shaking voice, but Michael was not in the least bit fazed. His lance tore through the hull of the beast and his fire melted its insides. Its demonic magic shot at the malakh, trying to break him but Michael dodged it as naturally as a poor actor dodged rotten tomatoes. 

He glowed so brightly, so brightly. His skin was golden and opaque, his hair long and flowing. He was unlike any malakh Adam had ever seen.

Maybe Michael hadn’t been overestimating his abilities, all those times he praised himself to Adam. 

Adam got very dizzy indeed as Michael’s lance lit up with a blinding light and cleaved through the great demon, beams of light pouring out and disintegrating the dying demon through every direction. 

Michael stood there, panting heavily and staring into the space once occupied by the slug-creature. A blankness came over his eyes as he waved a hand over his body and the black ooze rushed off of him and his freshly tailored clothes. He looked around the tunnel curiously before spotting Adam and trotting up to him.

“This isn’t the top of the stairs,” he said lightly.

Adam stared at him. “ _ How?” _

“Hmm?”

“Hurts,” Adam said, feeling his chest. His head felt even worse, but he always got headaches lately. The heat in his chest was far more troubling.

“I’m sorry,” Michael said. “You’ve gotten much better at channeling me recently. I do try not to push it too far.”

His left wing extended and wrapped around Adam’s body. Its coolness was soothing on Adam’s head and chest.

“You look more, more solid. Stronger,” he said, confused.

“Of course. I manifest more fully if the situation requires it. For more strength.”

“You have to manifest fully,” Adam said. “I tethered you. You are manifested fully.”

“Ah,” Michael said, and Adam didn’t understand why he sounded guilty. “Yes, we are tethered. But it would be very difficult to manifest me fully. You will need much more experience.”

Experience? Experience wasn’t required, not in the Order. Potential and aptitude was everything. You couldn’t increase your potential; you were born with it. Michael’s arms were wrapping around Adam’s body and lowering him to the ground. 

“Rest, Adam,” he said. “The temple is sanctified. We will be safe here.”

Adam closed his eyes. He could trust his malakh, even if he didn’t make any sense sometimes.

When he woke up, Michael was gone. A panic shot up his chest as Adam tried to recall where he was. They were still travelling, weren’t they? So Michael should be watching him.

“Lance?” he said softly, and waited for the malakh to manifest. But nothing happened - no no no  _ no - _

“Lance?” he called out, louder, and heard footsteps from up above echoing loudly on stone floors. Yes, he was in a temple, and Michael had assured him it was safe. That’s why he had left him.

It didn’t make it hurt any less.

Michael hurried down the steps and crouched in front of him. “Awake already. You’re as resilient as ever,” he commented.

“Don’t leave me. I hate it,” Adam complained.

Michael hesitated. “I didn’t leave you; I was just tidying the temple. We left a lot of demon corpses around the place.”

“What do you care? It’s a false temple to a false god,” Adam muttered.

“You will understand, in time. But first you need a proper bed, I think, Adam.” Michael pulled him up, an unusual tenderness in his touch. “Are you still sore? Dizzy?”

Adam slowly shook his head.

“Good, good.” 

Michael fell silent, watching him, waiting. For what?

“Are we going, then?” Adam asked.

“That is your choice, is it not? Thank you for allowing me this detour,” he added graciously.

“Yeah,” Adam said. Had he  _ allowed  _ it? He really wasn’t sure.

They went back up through the upper floors. Michael had really done a number on the place while Adam was napping, he was surprised to see. Even the ruined ground level looked polished.

“You went to a lot of effort to clean this place up,” he remarked to his malakh. “Why?”

Michael even lit the candles placed all over as they navigated back to the entrance. “This temple was built to someone worth worshiping, I think,” he said quietly. “I am only trying to be respectful.”

“Well, sure,” Adam said. He would have thought that malakhim worshipped God only, the same as the Church. He was  _ their  _ master.

He didn’t mind, not really. So Michael had his quirks. Adam hadn’t been taught that malakhim had individual personalities, but he guessed they were kind of like people in a way.

And Michael was the closest thing he’d had to a friend since he’d left his hometown.

His hand sought out Michael’s. He liked to hold the malakh’s hand while they walked. Michael could be so quiet, Adam would almost forget he was there. But the unusual cool-hot feeling of his malakh’s skin was unmissable.

He hadn’t realised how temperate it was inside the temple until they stepped back out into the biting cold. The snow had picked up something fierce and whipped into them as they found their way back to the road.

Adam’s teeth chattered, and he felt the ghostly tip of Michael’s wing curl warmly around his side. He moved closer to Michael in response, silently pressing into the malakh’s side.

“Hey, uh, don’t do that again,” he muttered.

“Do what?”

“Run off to fight a big demon by yourself. I know you had it handled, but…”

“Is that what happened?” Michael said oddly.

“Yeah, so just, wait for me next time. We’re stronger together.”

Michael frowned; his grip on Adam’s hand tightened but he seemed to be pulling away at the same time.

“Adam,” he said at length. “You are very skilled. But these creatures that bleed acid blood are too dangerous for any human to handle.” His words were delicate, measured. Like he was explaining something to a child.

Or a lunatic.

“I know that,” Adam said, exhaling forcefully. “But it’s not - I want to help.”

“Getting in the way is not helping,” Michael said. “In these circumstances, you could only do the former.”

Great. So even his own malakh didn’t want him around? Adam shoved him off and tried to walk on the other side of the road, but Michael followed him and wrapped his wing around him once more.

“You are cold,” he said.

“Well, you’re an asshole,” Adam muttered.

Michael tilted his head in confusion.

Longtooth was a mining village, set at the top of a deep and narrow valley. Wooden walkways descended down from the village’s edge down hundreds of meters to the mines tunneled into the mountain walls that stretched for miles out either way. The only other route was a wooden bridge that stretched out over the gorge to the road on the other side.

The mood in the village was miserable. Demons infested the mines; they had invaded the lower mines first so the miners had moved higher, where the mountain was poorer in minerals; the demons had crawled higher and higher in pursuit and now there was nowhere left for the miners to work safely. The village had been much larger, once, but most of the miners had left to find work elsewhere. The few that had remained were bitter and angry.

When Adam shrugged and offered to clear out the demons, the innkeeper he was chatting with stared and said, “Really?”

“Sure,” Adam said. “It’s my job. I’m an exorcist.”

“Yes, of course.” She hesitated. “The other exorcists have all said it is not worth the Order’s time.”

What? How could it not be worth the Order’s time? These people’s livelihoods were being destroyed by demons. This was why the Order  _ existed _ .

But Adam had crossed other exorcists on the road, and they had probably passed through Longtooth. So the innkeeper was likely telling the truth.

His chest twinged with second-hand guilt.

“I’m kind of a grunt. I’m not too busy,” he assured her. “Lance and I’ll go check it out in the morning.”

“Well, thanks,” she said, shaking her head and getting back to cleaning glasses. What, she didn’t believe him?

“You better be careful, boy,” a gruff voice with a thick accent said behind him. Adam turned to see a rough looking man bent over a tiny table peering into an empty mug.

“About what?”

“Demons aren’t the only dangers in those mines. Good chance the earth’ll kill you too. We’ve had earthquakes near daily in these parts.”

“Earthquakes?” Adam said. “For how long?”

“Ramped up a few months ago. Mmm, I’d say February things took a turn for the worse, wouldn’t ya say Lorna?”

“February, yup. Someone must have broke a mirror or some such,” the innkeeper muttered to herself.

Michael was tugging gently on his hand and trying to catch his eye. “Yeah? What’s wrong?”

Michael gave up on the tugging and leaned over to whisper in his ear instead. “The earthquakes will cease. We have slain the demon.”

“That slug thing? You think it was doing the earthquakes?” Michael frowned, looking somewhat unhappy with his assessment, but nodded regardless. Adam turned back to the gruff man who was wincing, head in hands. A glance over his shoulder and the innkeeper looked to be in pain as well.

“Everything okay?” Adam asked, worried. Another demon?

“Never heard one of those things make noise before,” the man said. “Is it hurting or sum’n?”

“No, he was just saying something,” Adam said.

“Lord above! Sounded like ten thousand kettles reaching the boil,” he said, laughing. “You exorcists can understand that?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Adam hadn’t realised normal people  _ couldn’t _ . “Anyway, um. We killed a dangerous demon in the ruined temple a ways back. Lance thinks that might stop the earthquakes. So maybe we’ll be alright.”

“The temple, huh?”

“Yeah, do you know it?”

“‘Course. Back in my granddaddy’s day, tourists would come from all over to visit it. Not that anyone’s been able to get inside. Some kind of old barrier up.” He looked thoughtful. “That didn’t stop you, huh?”

“If there was a barrier up, it’s gone now. Place is crawling with demons. Well, was. We cleared it out.”

“Hmm. Look at that, an exorcist that actually exorcises demons.”

Adam laughed awkwardly. He didn’t really know what to say to that.

“Look, I’m Egalion Byrne. Guess I’m what does as a mayor round these parts.” He took Adam’s hand and shook it.

“Adam Milligan,” Adam said automatically, even though the dude must have heard him introducing himself to the innkeeper. “Why’s the mayor sitting around in the inn?”

He shrugged. “Gotta be somewhere, don’t I?” But his expression turned serious. “Listen, if you do clear those mines out, we’d all real appreciate it. My house is the tall one up the hill; you come and let me know if you manage it. The village’s seen better days, but I’m sure I can scrounge up a reward for you.”

“I don’t need a reward,” Adam said quickly. “This is my job.”

“Your job, huh? And how much are they paying you?”

Adam didn’t have an answer for that. He didn’t even know for certain if he  _ was  _ going to get another allowance. They’d booted him out as soon as they’d realised he was worthless, so he doubted they’d assigned a salary to him.

“Hmm. Well, come see me anyhow,” the mayor said. “ _ If  _ you manage it.”

That seemed to be that; Byrne returned to staring bleakly into his mug. Adam headed to the room Lorna had provided him: people were warier here, but somehow no less generous.

He sat on the side of the bed and gazed up at Michael, who came to stand inbetween his legs. “I don’t get it,” he said. 

“Get what?”

“Why no one’s bothered trying to help with the mines. It’s been six months. This is the Order’s  _ job _ .”

“Is it?” Michael asked. His tone wasn’t his usual one of the curious and ignorant child, but something more probing. It gave Adam pause.

“Yeah,” Adam said. “We are taught to use our powers, and our malakhim, for good.”

“And who decides what is ‘good’?” Michael wondered. “That seems highly subjective.”

Adam frowned. “The Order decides.”

“But the Order has decided these people aren’t saving,” Michael pointed out. “Should we continue on our patrol?”

“You think I’m in the wrong? For trying to help?” But Adam wasn’t even hurt. He could see Michael was trying his hardest to  _ understand _ . Just like he was.

“The lives you seek to protect are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. My viewpoint. But they are significant to  _ themselves.  _ Another valid viewpoint.”

“Everyone is the main character of their own story,” Adam said slowly, to himself more than to Michael. “That includes me.”

Michael lifted his chin in amusement. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m the one who decides what is good and what is bad. If the Order disagrees, that’s on them.” He squeezed his hands together nervously. “Not that they’re gonna come checking on me anyway. We’ll go clear out those mines bright and early tomorrow morning. Okay?”

“Yes, my lord,” Michael said.

“Don’t call me that,” Adam said, lying his back down on the bed, his head just over the edge. Michael curiously followed him, bending over him so their faces once again met.

“So you’re sure that giant slug was causing the earthquakes, right?” Adam said blandly. 

“Yes and no,” Michael said. His expression was soft as his eyes mapped over Adam’s face. “The demons in the temple defiled it, desanctified it. When we cleared them out we restored its purity, restored its connection to the dormant Archdemon it was built to honour. That restabilised the earth here.”

“Archdemon?” 

“That is what you called them, I believe.”

“I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding,” Adam said, hesitating. “I don’t think anyone built temples to worship the archdemons.”

“These temples are thousands of years old. Well before you were even born, I suspect.”

Adam grinned. “Just a bit, yeah.”

Michael seemed to know a lot about this stuff, despite not even knowing what a demon was without Adam’s help. That led Adam to think whatever he was calling an archdemon was some other kind of powerful being. A stronger malakh, maybe?

“Is this a malakhim thing?” he asked. “The temples?”

“Malakhim and humans built them together,” Michael agreed, to Adam’s surprise. “They form connections to the Archdemons, to maintain balance across the Earth.”

“Oh,” Adam said. He couldn’t really imagine using malakhim as building tools. He envisioned putting Michael to work building him a house, and smiled at the thought.

“What troubles me is that first the temple was abandoned, and then it was infiltrated by demons,” Michael continued. “If the first was done systematically to allow the second, other temples may be in danger.”

“I haven’t heard of any active temples that weren’t part of the Church,” Adam said thoughtfully.

“Because your God does not allow the worship of others,” Michael said.

“Because there’s only one God,” Adam said. “What, you want us to start worshiping demons?”

“Worshiping them isn’t the point. The temples simply need to be left intact.”

Michael was actually starting to sound aggravated. Adam wrapped an arm around him and rubbed his back soothingly.

“Do you know where the temples are? We can go check on them if you’re worried.”

Michael paused. “I know where  _ some  _ are. But I worry the ones not known to me will be in worse conditions.”

“That’s okay, we can still make a start. Any in my patrol area?”

Michael got off him, to Adam’s regret, and retrieved Adam’s bundle of maps from his belongings. 

“Here,” he said, scribbling on it. “These are the major ones in this region. I expect smaller ones may be in irreclaimable states of disrepair.”

Adam looked at the map he was handed. Michael’s red circles all seemed to be in extremely inaccessible places. Seven circles, and only three were in the polar region. Four were in the Francine Mountains. Adam didn’t think they were  _ technically  _ part of his patrol.

But who would know?

“Why are they all in mountains?” he said. “Are they  _ all  _ underground?”

“No, these ones were constructed at the peaks,” Michael said.

Adam scratched his head. “Okay, but I feel like that’s worse.”

“I’m sorry. They weren’t designed with the intention of being visited. I see now that it is causing problems.”

“Did you design them?” Adam asked. Michael spoke as if he had  _ been  _ there.

“No,” Michael said. “I did choose the locations.”

“Oh,” Adam said. “So this is  _ your  _ fault.” It did make a little more sense as to why he knew where they were, though.

Michael considered him silently. “If you prefer, I can visit them on my own while you stay safe in a settlement -”

“Nope, nah. Of course I’m coming.”

“Hmm.” Michael went to go sit at the table in the corner of the room, and Adam readjusted his position on the bed to watch his malakh stare blankly out the window.

Temples, huh. 

***

Adam was still pretty exhausted even after getting a whole night’s sleep. They  _ did  _ take out a whole lotta demons in that temple, hours of intense work that Adam wasn’t really used to. And now they were going down to the mines to do it all over again.

Adam was a bit nervous as they started heading down the wooden walkways. Supported by rope and wooden stakes, the bridges swayed only  _ slightly  _ over the incredibly deep valley. Adam held onto Michael’s hand hard. He wasn’t scared of heights, just of dying.

Michael peered with interest into the gorge. “This goes quite a way down, doesn’t it?” he remarked candidly to Adam.

“Yeah. I hope the mines don’t go all the way to the bottom.”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

“Well, cause I assume the ones built at the top were first? And it’ll take forever to do this if it’s the entire mountain.”

“Not forever.”

Adam rolled his eyes. “It’s hyperbole.”

“I don’t approve of hyperbole,” Michael said. “Say what you mean.”

“Make me, malakh.”

Michael frowned and didn’t respond. Adam decided to count that as a victory.

The mines were an absolute mess, brought to ruin by months of relentless natural disaster. The entrances were caved in, and Adam thought they were routed at the first blow when Michael began preparing a spell.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Shifting the earth,” Michael said. He cast the spell and the caved-in walls slowly raised themselves off the ground, the debris and structure of the cave reshaping to form a tunnel into the mines.

“Uh,” Adam said. “I thought you were a fire malakh.”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t malakhim only able to cast spells from one domain? You’ve been using fire magic this whole time.”

“I am weak at present, and fire is effective at killing at any level,” Michael explained. “But I can use magic from any ‘domain’, as you put it. It is true that the weak malakhim only use magic from the domain they belong to.”

“Oh. So what’s your domain then? Earth?”

“Air,” Michael said uninterestedly. He lit a ball of flame and passed it to Adam, before lighting another one in his own hand. The fire was warm, not hot, and glowed quite brightly. “It will be dark in here. Be careful,” he warned.

“ _ Air _ ? Really? You don’t seem the type.”

“The type?”

“Your personality. Uh, it’s hard to explain.”

“Air doesn’t have a personality,” Michael said calmly. “Air is air.”

“Of course air has a personality. You can literally say someone is airy.”

“Really? What does that mean?”

“Like they’re casual. Like they don’t really care.”

“I don’t see how that doesn’t fit me.”

“Like in a silly way. You’re not silly.”

“Perhaps I am silly, but you are so blinded by your own extreme silliness that you cannot see it.”

“Nah,” Adam said, smiling.

The demons here were weaker than the ones in the temple, but Adam was fighting them off with little help from Michael as the malakh focused on keeping the ceiling from caving on their heads. “Man, this sucks,” Adam said, coughing in the dusty mines. “Why’d we get saddled with this shit job?”

“We don’t have to do this. We can leave,” his malakh pointed out.

“No, we’re doing it,” Adam said firmly.

It was well over an hour before they had carved their way through the first level of the mine and reached another opening to the outside. Adam stepped out to the landing and looked down with despair to how far down the walkways went.

“Oh my  _ God, _ Lance,” he said tiredly.

“Would you like me to handle this? You can go rest in the village,” Michael offered.

“No, I can do this. It’s just a lot.”

“I understand.” Michael pulled at his collar. “There is a quicker way.”

“Quicker?”

“If you devote your energy to channeling me, I can remove the demons more easily. I will carry you so you don’t pass out.”

“What?” Adam stared at him, perplexed. “But I’m already channeling you.”

“As I explained yesterday,” Michael said patiently. “I am not fully manifested. You are managing to channel more of me with experience, but it will be a long time before I am fully here.”

Right. That’s why Adam had passed out, wasn’t it? To be honest, his memory of their entire time at the temple was blurry.

“We can try, I guess,” he said uncertainly. “How do I do it?”

“You don’t need to do anything; we are already bonded,” Michael said.

The malakh bent down and scooped Adam up from behind his knees; he panicked and grabbed onto Michael’s shirt hastily. “Hey!” he complained. “Put me down, idiot.”

“If carrying you turns out to be unnecessary, I will set you down,” Michael said somberly.

Asshole.

It was nice to be off his feet for a bit though, but it was undercut by the severe feeling of childishness forced on him from being carried. Once Michael began tearing through the mines, however, his fire burning up the rushing hordes of demons, Adam couldn’t feel anything but burning in his chest and an intense dizziness in his head. 

He slumped into Michael’s shoulder, and the hand supporting him stroked him soothingly. Adam didn’t know how there were two arms supporting him and then one directing Michael’s spells, but his vision was blurry so maybe he was just confused. 

To call this a  _ fight  _ against demons would be a misrepresentation. Michael slaughtered every one before they even had a chance to touch him, and was striding through the sections of mine without pause. It was definitely quicker.

As they descended down the mines, Adam found himself blinking hard, trying to avoid slipping into the well of unconsciousness that he was teetering over. Michael must have noticed, because he murmured, “You don’t need to stay awake,” as he continued to cut down the demons.

“You don’t need me at all,” Adam said, sleepily annoyed. “I’m getting in your way again.”

“So you  _ were  _ listening last night. I was starting to have my doubts.” He readjusted his grip on Adam. “This is manageable, however.”

“Fine. Wake me up when we’re done,” Adam ordered. His malakh. He ordered  _ his  _ malakh. He ordered him.

“Adam?” Michael said.

“What,” he snapped. His throat felt really dry.

“You told me to wake you up once I was done,” Michael said.

Adam blinked his eyes open, confused. They were outside again, the icy wind chilling his exposed skin. It was a lot darker than before.

Adam struggled to get out of Michael’s arms and the malakh gingerly let him go, holding him steady as his legs buckled almost immediately. The landing they were on had no steps down, only up. Adam peered over the edge of the rail and saw they were a hell of a lot further down the mountain. He could see and even  _ hear  _ a tiny creek rushing through the valley.

God, water. He readily grabbed his waterskin and poured the elixir of life down his throat. Michael watched him patiently.

“You really - you really cleared the whole place out?” Michael nodded. “How many hours has it been?”

“Eight. Did you want to inspect my work?”

“Hmm.” Adam stared at his malakh with an expression of fake suspicion. “I don’t know, you are an air malakh. You may have half-assed it.”

Michael tilted his head all the way to his shoulder in response. 

“I’m kidding. Obviously we’re just gonna go up the stairs,” Adam said, after a very awkward silence.

“Very well. Can you walk?”

“Of course I can walk.”

There were, however, a lot of stairs. Adam decided after about the fifth flight that he had a malakh for a reason and he may as well use him as a vehicle. Michael seemed utterly disinterested when Adam climbed onto his back and continued on completely unaffected.

Adam did, of course, disembark before the final set of stairs. He didn’t want poor Michael to be embarrassed when the village people saw Adam riding him like a horse, naturally.

There wasn’t exactly anyone hanging around in the village after dark, though. Adam led them over to the mayor’s house and politely knocked on the door. 

It was opened very cautiously after a couple of minutes of waiting and Byrne poked his head out suspiciously. “Oh, it’s you,” he said, looking up at Adam with surprise. “Come on in. What the hell’rya knocking for?”

“Cause it’s not my house?” Adam said, but followed him in.

“So, you survived the mines,” the mayor said, sitting down at the kitchen table. Adam sat opposite him, while Michael stood blankly against the wall. “No quakes today, huh?”

“Yeah. The mines were caved in pretty badly, but we managed to tunnel through with earth magic.”

“Hmm. Our boys don’t have ‘earth magic’.”

“We got rid of all the demons, though. So you should be able to handle it. Uh, if the earthquakes have stopped.”

“You cleared out  _ all  _ of them? Today?” The mayor scoffed. “Well, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Well, Lance did the heavy work,” Adam said. “He’s a pretty good malakh.”

Michael silently inclined his head in response to the praise. Mayor Byrne appraised the two of them thoughtfully.

“Well, if I’m not having my leg pulled, I guess we’ll go take a look tomorrow morning. Not that we have enough miners left to operate the mine like we used to, but.”

“Yeah. Good luck,” Adam said.

He nodded. “Now about your reward.”

“Oh, I don’t need,” Adam began, but he was already heading off to a different room. He returned with a small jewellery box.

“My husband’s mother’s,” he said, opening the box to reveal a silver necklace with a tiny sapphire in silver ornamentation. “Might fetch a penny or ten, I reckon.”

“Oh, uh, thanks,” Adam said, taking the box. They had quite a few coins now, and he felt a little bad taking it. “Is your husband, uh…”

“Dead. Cave-in got him couple months back.”

Adam winced. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well. Thanks.” Byrne’s eyes flicked over Adam’s shoulder, and he grinned. Adam turned and realised Michael was staring very intently at the box in his hands.

“Do you want the necklace, Lance?” Adam said, and Michael didn’t answer. He handed him the box anyway, and Michael very neutrally took the necklace out of the box and hung it around his neck, over the collar.

“Huh. He doesn’t seem the type,” Byrne commented.

“Lance is full of surprises,” Adam said drily.

They headed back to the inn, and Adam watched Michael inspect his new necklace in the mirror. “Didn’t think you would like that kind of stuff,” Adam said.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Fashion.”

“I am very fashionable, my lord,” Michael said.

“Hmm.” Adam watched him pull it over and around the collar a few times. “You can take the collar off, if you want.”

“Why would I want that? You gave this to me upon our bonding,” Michael said. He pulled at it. “It’s loose, though.”

Adam supposed he  _ had  _ manifested it a bit loose. Choking his brand-new malakh wasn’t really his ideal way to start off his career. “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t know how to fix that.”

Michael frowned at his reflection. “I can adjust it. With your permission, of course, Adam.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. I don’t mind.”

Michael murmured an incantation and drew a spell with his fingers. The metal shrunk to fit neatly around his neck.

“Do you want one?” he said.

“Want what?”

“A collar.”

“Uhh, no. I’m good, thanks.”

“Very well.” Michael seemed happy with how the necklace now paired with the much smaller collar, and beamed at his reflection. “Let me know if you change your mind, my lord,” he added graciously.

Why the  _ fuck  _ would Adam wear a collar? He wasn’t a malakh.

Michael seemed to think it was just an accessory, though; like he didn’t realise it marked him as Adam’s property. Adam sighed and started looking through his maps and documents again. They probably would be heading out tomorrow; there wasn’t too much to do in this village.

Michael looked more wooden then ever as he stared expressionlessly out the window. “You okay?” Adam asked nonchalantly as he studied his route.

“Am I okay?”

“You worked hard today. Take it easy.”

“As did you.”

Adam didn’t really think he could say he worked  _ hard _ , or indeed at all, with a good conscience, so he just smiled and nodded kind of neutrally. “Just uh, feel free to take a nap. Do you sleep?” Michael was always awake and alert when Adam went to sleep and when he woke up.

“I sleep for longer periods of time than most humans live,” Michael said. “Taking a nap would likely mean never seeing you again.”

“Oh,” Adam said. Well, he didn’t want that, obviously.

There was actually a group of people gathered in the village the next morning as they departed, the most people Adam had seen in Longtooth at once: seven. The mayor was among them, and waved cheerfully at Adam. “I went and had a look first thing. You’ve done a wonderful job, lord exorcist.”

“Yeah,” Adam said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. 

The bridge out of town was wide and sturdy, capable of bearing big carts loaded with ores to take them down to the city. It had clearly not had anything bigger than people or pack animals come across it any time recently, though, with most of it except for the middle covered in ice.

Adam glanced up at the overcast sky. They had been lucky with the weather, really lucky, but it wouldn’t last forever. There were only two seasons in the polar region, and summer would soon become winter. He didn’t particularly want to find out what demons lurked in the depths of twenty-hour-long nights.

They reached a crossroads after a few days travel. The southern road would get them to the city quicker, and went down close to the mountains. It was Adam’s original route. But one of Michael’s temples he had drawn on the map was closer to the middle of the region, where Adam hadn’t planned to patrol at all. On account of there being absolutely nothing out there.

So he took them on the northern road instead.

“Are we not going down?” Michael said curiously. “There are many temples in the mountains.”

“I don’t think we have the right equipment to go mountain trekking in the Francines,” Adam said blithely. “Maybe we can double back after we reach Vavyria.”

“As you wish,” Michael said. “I will follow your lead.”


End file.
